How To Use Insurance to Access Agricultural Financing

Poor funding is one of the biggest problems facing Nigeria's agric industry. Farmers simply can’t access enough credit to upgrade their subsistence level farming, buy farm machinery, and hire skilled labour.

Banks on the other hand are the moneybags with limitless sums of money lying idle in their vaults, looking at farmers with reproof and running after oil barons and telecom tycoons  to come over and have some. 

How then does insurance come into the equation?

How important is Agriculture to the well-being of a Nation?

The fact has been established that agriculture is the mainstay of any nation’s economy.

Sure Nigeria, and Angola are known for their crude oil, Sierra Leone and South Africa can boast of their large Diamond fields and Ghana pride herself in having some of largest concentration of gold in the world, yet none of these valuable resources can replace agriculture in the whole equation of achieving economic development for a nation.

If all the nations of the earth were stripped of their treasured natural resources, they would still be able to survive on agriculture alone. In fact, there would be more peace, less pollution, reduced cases of global warming and we would all live longer and healthier lives.

Farming or Agro-business?

You will be coming across these two terms a lot in the course of browsing through this website and I found it expedient to pass across to you what I meant by each of them.

I don’t want you confused.

Many people use the words interchangeably to the point where they begin to assume that the two words hold the same meaning. Well, they don’t.

Farming and agro-business are not exactly the same thing.

You can be in the Agro-business without being a farmer while you are an agro-business man if you are in farming.

Farming is an agro-business but agro-business is not just solely about farming.

Farming is just one tiny, albeit key component of the trillion dollar agro-business worldwide. There are so many other agro-business components that play crucial roles in getting farm produce from the farms to our tummies.

7 Investment-Friendly Branches of the Agribusiness Industry

There are so many agents involved either directly or indirectly in the agricultural value chain that it is rather a taking exercise to try to box them into distinct categories. It is not uncommon to find one individual or firm making money from two or more arms at the same time. 

Any man or venture or institution present in the thick of the food and fibre value chain and those that influence from outside are all a part of the beautiful system of agribusiness.

Why You Should Start a Jatropha Curcas Farm

I get asked many times: is Jatropha curcas a viable agro-crop in Nigeria?

My answer always is: Yes, it is.

I know. It’s not cocoa. It’s not coffee. And it’s not tobacco. But even though it’s poisonous, it’s the sweetest seed in the world right now.

It’s no other than Jatropha Curcas.

The jatropha curcas may not be the most popular crop in the world at the moment but it’s Usain Bolt-fast on the way to the top of that chart.  And positioning yourself as a jatropha farmer could be the way to reaping profitably from ‘the crude oil of the future.’

Nigeria’s huge potential to become an agricultural giant

Presently, China is the number one country in the world in agricultural production. They produce more than Nigeria and the United States combined. China is the Usain Bolt of the world’s agro race.

That’s huge! And it’s easy to actually point at their large population as the reason behind their agricultural advancement. Lest we forget, China is the world’s most populated nation boasting well over a billion citizens.

But if China’s head count was the sole reason why they are producing more than they can eat, then Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, should be feeding the rest of the continent right about now. 

Sadly, the reverse is the case.

Organic Farming: 7 Money-Making Facts to Know

Organic farming is nothing more than the traditional method of farming, the type that farmers probably used five thousand years ago. It is the holier than thou type of farming. It is farming without the ugly use of techniques considered to be harmful to humans and the society.

With over $100 billion market worldwide and growing, organic farming can no longer be ignored or brushed aside as the ramblings of modern day cave men. Here you have seven money-making facts that could help any organic farmer.

Organic Livestock Farming: All You Need To Know

Usually when people talk in favour of or against organic farming, the emphasis is on crop production. Pretty much as if organic farming does not support livestock.

But then is there anything like organic livestock farming? Well, pal, you’re damn right there is.  So, here are the basic things to always remember about organic livestock farming.

The 3 Biggest Challenges Facing the Agribusiness Investor

Like every other industry with tremendous value creating opportunities, the Agribusiness industry in Nigeria also has its fair share of challenges. Some are everyday rough edges that are more easily smoothened by tact and wit. While a few problems exist that required the skills of experts to solve. These are the three biggest challenges facing the agribusiness investor.

Why Should a College Graduate Consider Farming?

I get asked this question a lot of times: why should a big time, 21st century college graduate consider a career in a dirty, uncivilized farmland meant for the lowly and uneducated?

Well, the big time, 21st century University graduate is a big illusion.

A well-marketed fantasy: Nigeria is one of the largest producers of crude oil in the world. Graduate with a good degree in any discipline and secure a well-paying job in one of the several oil firms operating in the company. Buy a brand new car, build your house, get married and settle down within the first year of employment.

However, a 21st century University graduate has woken up to different reality. 

Welcome to Farm Starter Blog

Welcome to Farm Starter Blog, Nigeria's Number One Agribusiness Investment blog.

This blog was set up to show my country men that there's money to be made in all aspects of agriculture. A lot of cash. 

I keep saying that because I believe it strongly to be true. And I will keep saying it until you believe it too. 

Yet it is only for those who have the right information, who are ready to key into the countless opportunities that abound in agriculture and for those who dare to sip through the dirt to get to the wealth.

Agro-Business Opportunity in Nigeria: Tomato Paste Production

Thinking of a viable agribusiness to start that will guarantee good return on investment and be sustainable for the long-term? Maybe you don’t see yourself as a farmer or grower but still want to make and create wealth via farming or agribusiness?

Then tomato paste production is for you.

                                                                                                   Tomato Crop and Paste

Do not be surprised that Nigeria is one of the world’s biggest growers and consumers of tomato.

Countless truckloads of tomatoes can be seen almost on a daily basis making their way from the Northern part of the country where they are predominantly planted to the Southern region where they are generously consumed.

The sad part though is that a large chunk of this yummy crop does not make it into our pot of Stew, Edikaikong, Afam or Vegetable soup.

They are condemned and thrown away as waste, a couple of weeks after harvesting them.

The best way to store them for a much longer period therefore is to process the tomatoes into paste and package them properly.

Privatizing Agric Mechanization in Nigeria- The Challenges

Mechanizing agriculture in Nigeria is the best way to go. Even illiterate farmers know that. 

Agricultural equipment helps a farmer cultivate more with less labour.

Simply put, a farmer with access to a tractor could plant 10 hectares per day, compared to just one hectare per day if the same operation is being done manually with hoes and cutlasses with human labour.

Even a workaholic farmer can see the difference.

So why does the Nigerian farmer appear indifferent to the use of modern technologies in boosting his yield and thus his income?

Most of them still carry out subsistence farming trusting in the same crude tools that was popularize by the cave man two million years ago.

Is it that Nigerian farmers don’t welcome the use of high tech in farming? Far from it! 

Is technology a taboo, forbidden in the land? As far as I know, definitely not!

Then why is it that majority of our food growers still rely on hoes and cutlasses in the jet age? 

The reasons are not so far fetched. Two of the biggest challenges are: